Jalapeno woes

So, my little above ground garden is doing better after getting the wise advice from people here to fertilize (hey, I'm a beginner). Well, my squash and cucumbers are doing great....I am hand pollinating the boy flowers to the girl flowers.

I had heard that jalapenos don't need such a thing (plus, I can't really tell if there is such a thing as a girl/boy flower in this plant). But, my jalapenos have flowered little white flowers many times that slowly will wilt over the next few days...but alas, no jalapeno to be found!!!

Is there something I"m doing wrong? I keep hearing jalapenos are gardening easiness....

i don't know if you are adding any fertilizer to them now or not but it is generally a rule of thumb to stop when the have started the budding phase and just water them once the fruit form them you can feed them again.

they should recover ... but just add water and no fertilizer to them . and let maw nature take care of the rest unless you are trying to cross plants there is no need to hand pollinate any of the flowers .

Sarge

It also may be that it's just not warm enough for the fruit to set.

Typically peppers don't need a fertilizer unless they are in pots. However should you choose to do so, fertilize the soil with a good 15-15-15 fertilizer. :)

Are you sure that there are no peppers? Pepper flowers will fall off and leave a tiny "button" behind, which is the baby papper. I recall thinking there was nothing going on until suddenly there were peppers. I hope it works that way for you.
Stephanie has a point, how warm has your weather been?

My jalapenos flourish in August when the temp at night isn't below 75º. Also, the flowers sorta fold back up and create the pepper. Do you have bees?

The weather is definitely in the 80's during the day....this week, we have been strangely in the 50's at night...maybe it isn't warm enough.

I have looked for that tiny "button" of fruit showng, but strangely, I can't even seem to idenitify where the old flowers used to be....

Hmmm....I have been fertilizing it because the other plants in that raised garden bed needed it badly....so I just went ahead and fertilized everything! Maybe I'll try stopping the fertilizer now that there are still flowers.

Thanks for the help so far!

If the whole flower assembly is dropping, then it's probably still too chilly at night. I don't think mine set until it stays in the 60's at night, but I'm not sure whether it's because of the temps, or just that it's "time". :)
I'll try to be more observant this time around....

I think it's the inconsistent temps we've been having. I tell you, I get the most production in August, September, & October. Here's my jalapenos last October.

I was having the same issue of all these buds that would just fall off. Yesterday, I moved a leaf and there was this 3" "Fooled You" jalapeno laughing at me! I guess it did "Fool Me!"

I'm finally seeing buttons where the blooms dropped. I believe it hasn't been consistently hot enough yet, and I am very hopeful for a good crop. I'm growing the peppers (sweet bells and jalapenos) in eBuckets. I feed them two weeks ago with some nitrogen? phosphorous rock? (I forget which one!) to help them along, and it seemed to have worked.

Linda

Gymgirl, how are the Fooled You jalapenos? I grew False Alarm a few years ago and liked them b/c I can't eat super hot w/o getting hiccups. I got one seed to germinate from a pack that was 5 years old and it's growing well. Just wondering how the Fooled You taste in your opinion.

Toni

This time the jalapenos are growing! Woohoo....must've been the cooler temps before!

Toni,
My Jalapenos are very crispy, with absolutely no heat. I think I might go for a little heat next time.

Thanks Gymgirl, I remember with the False Alarm there was an occasional "hot" one; boy, that was a surprise! I like to oil them up and grill 'em whole.

Doesn't the heat in peppers sometimes depend on growing conditions? Somehow I have in my head that drier conditions make for hotter peppers?

Yes. Keep the watering to a minimum for maximum heat though varieties differ as to the heat you can expect.

Yeah, I get that:) Can't make a Jalapeno into a Habanero *G*

Right! It's still puzzling how one jalapeno can be scorching on a plant that otherwise does not produce really hot peppers.

Heat in peppers can be influenced by stress on the plant--extreme heat, too much water, very little water, etc. And sometimes a pepper gets hotter as the plant grows older. Last year I grew some jalapenos, and when I first started picking them, they were about as mild as a bell pepper. By the end of the summer, they were hotter than fire.

Peppers are self-pollinating, and they'll also cross with the help of insects. It really doesn't matter which way it happens unless you're saving seeds and don't want them crossed with another pepper variety.

My peppers always bloom for awhile before setting on peppers. Some of that may be because of cool nights, but I think they generally just don't make peppers with the very first blooms. After a week or two of dropping blooms, it seems every blossom forms a pepper.

I'm growing a hybrid variety this year called Mariachi. Mariachi is like a non-bell sweet pepper, but it has a mild level of "heat". My wife and I love chiles rellenos, and I think Mariachi will be great for those.